Marion is a city in and the county seat of Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 12,345 at the 2010 census, a 38.7% increase since 2000. The city is ration of the Memphis metropolitan area. It is the second largest city in Crittenden County, behind West Memphis.

Although Marion was incorporated in 1896, the community predates that significantly. The site of Marion was share of Louisiana (New Spain) from 1764 to 1803, when it became Louisiana (New France). Some of the oldest home titles in the area are from Spanish estate grants from a become old prior to the Louisiana Purchase. After the Louisiana Purchase the Place was share of the Arkansas Territory. During the 1830s the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Native Americans from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, passed through the area.
Its location is close to where the Sultana Steamboat exploded and sunk. A memorial is placed upon the city hall square to recall those who were floating in the accident.

Marion, Arkansas was named after Marion Tolbert. In 1837, two commissioners had been appointed by the county court to select a site for a new county seat. Tolbert and his wife, Temperance, gave a finishing to the commissioners “for the county of Crittenden for county purposes” on June 25, 1837. A town was laid out and named Marion in praise of Marion Tolbert. The town of Marion was officially made the county seat of Crittenden County, Arkansas. Marion has been incorporated on multiple occasions, first in 1851. The current incorporation dates from 1896.

During the American Civil War the steamboat Sultana was destroyed in an explosion upon April 27, 1865, as it was transporting released Union POWs close Mound City, just east of Marion. It is estimated that 1,500 soldiers and crew were killed, the largest loss of vibrancy in a maritime crash in US history. This tragedy is commemorated by a historic marker placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution.